


Criminal Offense

by Capucine



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Good versus Evil, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Morality, Pain, Politics, Revenge, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-31 01:32:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8558014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Capucine/pseuds/Capucine
Summary: Jason Todd has always been a bit of a wild card. But this time, he bit off more than he could chew when he attacked a senator.
Superman's intervention sets off a series of events that will divide the Justice League down its center, and bring up the question: what are superheroes, and who should they be fighting?





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is...not happy. And is definitely an AU with permanent consequences within the storyverse.
> 
> JSYK.

Jason was foolhardy. Jason was full of anger. Jason was a bit unhinged.

Jason was a murderer.

But this time, he wasn’t _wrong._

And Bruce should have known. Should have known he would attempt to murder a state senator who had raped multiple children and gotten away with it because of money. Should have known that the instant the legislation he was trying to get passed came too close due to paying people off, Jason would take action.

The last victim of the man to come forward had recently killed herself.

The legislation was one that would ‘tighten up’ rape laws in the state, lower the age of consent in their state, a number of provisions so people like the ‘poor, promising’ football player who got arrested for statutory rape a while back wouldn’t be punished for ‘doing nothing wrong.’

Its intentions sounded good enough, in some ways. No one would want a false rape accusation, and no teenager having sex with his seventeen year old girlfriend while having just turned eighteen wanted to go to jail.

But what it would do was make it more difficult for rape or sexual abuse charges to be filed, especially on behalf of a minor or a disabled person. Not totally impossible, but far more open to public view and far more paperwork and technicality involved.

And Jason had decided to take the law into his own hands.

He was there now, threatening the life of the senator. It was on TV, his son in his shiny red mask, ready to blow the brains out of a senator.

And Bruce couldn’t imagine driving faster, his hands gripping the wheel, pleading to himself that he could get there in time to stop Jason.

If Jason killed this man, they would hunt for him endlessly. He would likely get the death penalty if they caught him. There was no way Bruce could shield him after that.

_”...I’m sorry this no other way to end this, Senator...”_ came through the live feed, Jason’s voice angry and yet, somewhat sincere.

_”Don’t kill me! I’ll do whatever you want, you have my word!_ the Senator’s tones came through, and Bruce swallowed hard at the sound of fear in his voice. Desperation. He knew that Jason wasn’t going to spare him.

_”I’m not_ that _sorry,”_ Jason responded, _”I’m only sorry I can’t do this quietly.”_

And still, the sincerity in his words was there. Like he wanted to stop this without resorting to violence, and Bruce was cursing under his breath, because it didn’t _have_ to be violent, why couldn’t Jason see that?

He was still twenty minutes out.

He was only nineteen out when there was a loud crash—the senator screaming, the sound of a roof being torn apart, a gun shot.

He could hear Jason cry out, not very loudly, but in pain. _”Shit!”_

_”Red Hood, your terrorism ends here. Come quietly,”_ Superman’s authoritative tone boomed.

_”It can’t end here, not while he still--”_ Jason started, voice rapid and angry and urgent.

It ended in a cry of pain again, and Bruce chanced a look at his feed.

Superman had Jason, his arms pinned behind his back, a gunshot wound in his shoulder that was clearly agonizing.

He was breathing like it was, that was for sure.

_”The Red Hood is contained,”_ Superman was saying into his comm, moving slowly back towards the Senator and presumably the door out.

Jason gave a violent struggle, making Superman shake him, not unlike a bad owner shook a dog.

_”Stop fighting, Hood--”_

_”No!”_ Jason managed, before there was another gunshot.

Bruce’s heart stopped.

Superman was frozen.

And the senator put his gun down heavily, saying, _”Thank god for you, Superman. We stopped him.”_

Bruce could see the way Jason wasn’t fighting anymore. The blooming red across his white shirt, the pale skin of his throat, where he’d been hit.

And then he couldn’t see at all, a sort of white blank taking over his vision.

When he seemed to come back, he was there at the state building. He was parked. And he needed to know, to see, even though he already knew.

The run up to the building was surreal, like nothing else existed but getting up there. Like nothing else was real. Like paper backdrops.

Superman met him, saying, firmly, “I can’t let you go in there.”

His face was slightly pale, holding up a single hand.

“I have to—you can’t stop me!” Bruce snapped, wanting to rip Superman’s face off, wanting to tear through him and get to Jason.

“Batman, he’s gone. You shouldn’t be here, they’ll think--”

“I don’t care what they think!” Bruce snapped back, his face was burning, his lungs, he felt like he was inhaling smoke.

“Bruce, just step away and breathe--”

“You have no right to say that to me!” Bruce snarled back, and how could Clark? He’d just caused Jason to be killed, he’d had a hand in it, his son was _dead_ , Jason was gone for good, he had to get in there--

“ _I_ don’t?!” Superman demanded. “If you’d done something about him earlier, he wouldn’t have gotten this _insane!_ If you had stopped him, if you had done literally anything right with this boy--”

“So he deserved to die? So you have that right, and he doesn’t?!” Bruce snapped back, unwilling to concede at all. “Who made you the judge, jury, and executioner, Clark?”

“I didn’t kill him,” Superman insisted, “He did that himself, by attempting to assassinate a government official!”

A horrible thought struck Bruce’s brain like lightning. “You _let_ him be shot. You could have stopped it, but then it wouldn’t be _justice_ to you, would it?”

“You need to cool off,” Superman growled back, fists clenched. “Now.”

“Let me see my son!” Bruce snapped back, not about to back down.

And Superman swept aside, saying, “He’s all yours. Good luck claiming the body, Bruce.”

Bruce stormed past Clark, his heart doing sickly twists.

The roof was caved in. One could easily see the smaller damages from Jason making his way in, but there didn’t seem to be fatalities on Jason’s part. No blood. No bodies. 

There were some bullet holes in the wall.

And there was his son, in a body bag. The thought alone was enough to nearly make Bruce throw up.

Why would Jason be given back, only to be snatched so cruelly again?

Jason’s helmet was already gone. So was the domino he wore underneath. His eyes were closed. His throat wasn’t.

Bruce found that all the crime investigation folks were pressed against the wall, letting him approach the body with no argument. So he did, crouching down to Jason, and wondering how the fuck he was in this position again.

He put a hand on Jason’s cheek.

For all Jason was, he was never evil. He was never destined to do wrong.

What he was, was someone trying to do the right thing, but overwhelmed by the sheer evil of the world, by the darkness in his own heart. By the pain he carried.

And Bruce had no doubt this had still been an attempt to do good, to protect people.

Now he was gone.

Bruce felt like he’d barely adjusted to Jason being alive, and now he had to adjust back. And now, there wasn’t a Tim or anyone who could help him survive this.

He found himself cradling Jason’s head.

Jason was barely nineteen, depending on how you counted it. He’d barely gotten a few more years.

And Bruce had made his decision long before he lifted Jason’s body.

“Sir—Batman, sir--” the crime scene investigators protested, afraid to get in his path but not wanting him to take the body.

He brushed them aside.

Superman blocked his path when he went to leave, though. “Batman, you can’t--”

“Stop me, and I will kill you.” Bruce said this flatly, emotionlessly.

Clark’s eyes narrowed, but he backed off a bit. He obviously didn’t want it to come to a fight between them.

Bruce took Jason back to the Batmobile, and headed home.

He didn’t know how he was going to tell Alfred.

**Author's Note:**

> My boyfriend gave me this idea, partially based off of the thought of Red Son, the DC alternate universe comic in which Superman ends up in the Soviet Union instead of America, and is the thing that keeps the system going.
> 
> And Batman is a crazy Anarchist in it who nearly succeeds in stopping Superman from taking over the world through Communism.
> 
> So. I'm not gonna take potshots at specific American political parties, but yeah. Expect more.


End file.
